The 12-month global celebration of Barbadian excellence is intended to signal a recommitment to the country’s successful future and core values that have defined us as a people.

2020 has been designated as the year for Barbadians and those who love this country to come home, reconnect with family and friends, and invest in the rebuilding and development of Barbados.

The initiative will begin in the north of the island in January 2020, and move southward every month, culminating in St. Michael in November.

The grand climax takes place in December with a Christmas extravaganza for Barbadians at home and abroad.

Hundreds of Barbadians are expected to converge in Bridgetown for the launch and two screens will be set up so members of the public can view the ceremony on Broad Street or by the Palmetto Square Market.

CRICKET West Indies (CWI) president Dave Cameron is expected to face his sternest challenge in four years for the region's top cricket post when elections are held next month. Ex-Windies manager Ricky Skerritt today announced he will be battling Cameron at the CWI elections set for March 24 in Jamaica. Skerritt and Dr Kishore Shallow, the president of the St Vincent and The Grenadines Cricket Association, who will be contesting the vice-presidency, have unveiled a ten-point plan to revive Windies cricket.Both candidates’ nominations were said to have been supported by the TT Cricket Board and Leeward Islands Cricket Board.

Speaking to Newsday yesterday, TTCB 1st vice president Arjoon Ramlal was coy about declaring support for Skerritt and Shallow, but admitted discussions had been held about their candidacies.

Ramlal said nominations are supposed to close on Sunday and once that takes place, the TTCB would make an official statement.

Twelve votes, two each for six member territories, are at stake in the upcoming CWI elections.

All Trinidad General Workers Trade Union boss Nirvan Maharaj is unapologetic about having to evict former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday from the union’s Rienzi Complex, Couva administrative building.

He said Panday, who once headed the union when it was called All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers Trade Union, has unpaid rental fees totalling some $500,000 since 2012.

However, Panday disputed that claim and instead said Maharaj wanted to combine his (Panday’s) office space with the one previously used by the Opposition UNC for rental purposes. Panday quipped the space may be used as a casino. He said the matter is now in the hands of his attorneys.

In July 2016, the union evicted the Opposition party after it failed to pay the increased rental fees. The rent was raised from $12,000 to $25,000 per month.

In a telephone interview yesterday, Maharaj said the issue was a landlord/ tenant relationship saying the union had attempted to renegotiate its lease arrangement with Panday in 2012 but he refused to meet with them.

“And by refusing to do so, Mr Panday technically became a month-to-month tenant. He then stopped paying rent and since 2012 this union would have written Mr Panday over 70 letters, one per month asking Mr Panday to liquidate his rental arrears and pay his current rent but he neglected, negated, refused and failed to meet with the union president or the general secretary and executive and he just continued staying at Rienzi Complex.”

Maharaj said the issue came to a head on February 6, 2019 when he once again wrote Panday asking him to “liquidate his rental arrears and to give up the premises.”

“Mr Panday is owing the All Trinidad union $500,000. Now I love and respect Mr Panday for his contribution to this country but I have a fiduciary duty to the membership of this union and like all other unions like PSA, SWWTU we have to use our assets to ensure the union’s survival because remember it’s a $10 membership per week, and that alone can’t keep the union surviving after we would have lost over 15,000 members.

“I have absolutely no apologies for taking the action I have taken on behalf of the union. I have to do what I have to do not based on sentiment and emotion but based on pure logic for the survival of the union for another 81 years and beyond.”

Meanwhile, Panday said there was no indication that his foundation, the Basdeo Panday Foundation, would be evicted yesterday as it had operated normally on Wednesday.

“My secretary went to the office this morning, I was there yesterday and the office was open, I attended to people yesterday and when my secretary went this morning, the gates were locked, I couldn’t even get into the office, I couldn’t even get into the compound to get into the office, the gates were locked.”

He said the action had not taken him by surprise him as it had been trying to evict him for some time.

“They sent a letter which I have passed it to my lawyers, they have been claiming rent for a very long time and no rent is due. I think they want to rent out the place for a casino or something so.”

Panday has his own theories why he was evicted saying the union’s offices are in close proximity to his own and union members who had failed to have their concerns addressed would come to him for advice.

Panday said confidential documents were presently locked away in his office and expressed concerns on how he would be able to retrieve them.

However Maharaj said Panday or his secretary could call the union to make arrangements for the retrieval of the documents and other equipment. And asked whether he was concerned about potential fallout from his members, Maharaj said he is “not concerned about any fallout.”

“Fallout or otherwise is of no consequence to me. The National Solidarity Assembly is the political arm of the All Trinidad union. We will contest the electoral politics as we always do. This is simply a landlord/ tenant relationship.”

Police are probing reports of two burglaries at the Wilkie Cumberbatch Primary School.

Lawmen say the burglaries occurred between February 19 and 21st.

Police officials say sometime between the mentioned dates; an unknown culprit or culprits entered a number of areas on the school's premises at Lascelles Terrace, Pine, St. Michael and removed a number of items belonging to the school.

Lawmen are asking anyone who may have information that can assist the police with the investigations to contact the nearest police station.

The BERT Monitoring Committee is expected to make its first public report on Government's performance for the final months of 2018.

The report is based on information provided by Government on its progress for the months October, November and December.

The committee is an independent sub-committee of the social partnership, set up primarily to monitor government's progress in meeting its commitments and targets, as set out under its agreement with the International Monetary Fund.

Barbadians are being encouraged to pay special attention to this report, which will be highlighted in the media .

Two key strikes by Test left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican left Barbados Pride with a share of the honours, on the opening day of their eighth round match against Windward Islands Hurricanes Thursday.Rolled over for a disappointing 215 in their first innings after electing to bat, Pride struck back when Warrican removed the dangerous Devon Smith for 18 and then Kavem Hodge for four, to leave the hosts stuttering at the close on 49 for two.

Smith had struck three fours in a 33-run opening stand with teenaged partner Kimani Melius (19 not out) before he was bowled by Warrican.

And Hodge faced 24 balls before he too was bowled by Warrican, about 25 minutes before the close at the Arnos Vale Stadium.

Wicketkeeper Tevyn Walcott had earlier struck his second half-century in his three innings when he carved out a polished 66 to rescue the visitors.

Arriving at the wicket with Barbados tottering on 60 for five, Walcott put on a crucial 82 for the sixth wicket with veteran left-hander Jonathan Carter who made a chancy 42.

Walcott faced 114 deliveries and struck nine fours while Carter counted six fours in 99 balls at the crease.

Carter rode his luck, however, dismissed off a Sherman Lewis (2-40) no-ball on 25 in the second over after lunch and then dropped in the same over off a caught and bowled chance, with no addition to his score.

He finally perished to a catch at the wicket off the impressive seamer Joseph Thomas (3-55) but Walcott added a further 39 for the seventh wicket with Warrican (25) before departing.

Lewis and Thomas had earlier combined to wreck the Pride top order, in a devastating opening burst.

Test pacer Lewis bowled Rashidi Boucher with the third ball of the morning without a run on the board and then had other opener Shayne Moseley caught at the wicket for nine at 31 for two.

Thomas then struck in successive overs, trapping captain Shamarh Brooks lbw for 21 before having Aaron Jones caught at the wicket for four.

The St. Kitts-Nevis government says it will consider and consult further on creating the framework for the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes after a national commission submitted a number of recommendations surrounding the use of the drug in the twin-island Federation.

Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris told Parliament Wednesday that the National Marijuana Commission, which had been appointed to consult with the public and enquire into the wide-ranging issues surrounding marijuana use, had issued 13 recommendations for consideration.

The pilot of a single engine aircraft died on Thursday night after the plane crashed and exploded upon landing at an airstrip in Eteringbang, near the Venezuelan border.The police have identified the pilot as Captain Randy Liverpool, the lone occupant in the Cessna 206 aircraft.

The Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), in a statement confirmed that “the lone occupant of the aircraft has perished” and that it “will provide more details as it becomes available”.

The Guyana Police Force (GPF) in its statement said the accident occurred about five minutes away from the Eteringbang Airstrip, Cuyuni District.

“Persons rushed to the scene and the pilot was found engulfed in flames in the wrecked aircraft. The body which is burnt beyond recognition was later taken to the Eteringbang Police Station waiting to be transported to Georgetown,” the statement added.

This is the second plane crash in a week. In the other incident, the pilot, Lincoln Gomez, and another occupant survived with minor injuries.

Barbados cannot achieve a 21st century service ethos by sticking to rules, regulations and structures – utilizing ‘old wineskins’ that have not changed much since Independence.

Minister of Labour and Social Partnership Relations, Colin Jordan, stressed this today as he addressed the Consultation on Human Resource Development (HRD) at The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus.

It was against this backdrop that he said the recent separation of workers from the public service must not be seen merely as a retrenchment exercise but as the first phase in the modernization of the public service.

Noting that the comment was not designed to trivialize or minimize the hurt and the pain still felt by those who have lost their jobs, he reminded those present that Government was in the process of detailing a modernization programme with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Mr. Jordan acknowledged that the programme was intended to utilize many of the persons who recently lost their clerical positions in the public sector and noted the IDB initiative, sometimes referred to as a digitization programme, was expected to result in a “complete modernization”.

He further pointed out that his Ministry, like the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, had a national focus and consequently their policies were designed to effect changes in the quality of workers, as well as in the regulation of the Barbados labour market.

The Labour Minister added that HRD or workforce development, must move beyond just education and training and promote the ambition of an efficient and effective labour market, where employers are able to obtain the skills that they need and job-seekers are able to get the jobs that they like and can succeed in.

Explaining that workforce development was an element of “lifelong learning” firmly grounded in business need and including both formal and informal learning, Mr. Jordan stressed that employability, a core objective in Barbados’ original HRD Strategy 2011-2016, must again be a signal outcome, with lifelong learning the bridge that facilitates continued employability.

He pointed out that workforce development was key to achieving three sets of important outcomes for Barbados in the context of its transformation agenda: increasing social inclusion; raising productivity; and preparing the economy for the future, principally through the stimulating and the formation of skill eco-systems.

“The development of relevant skills must not be perceived simply as investing more in training programmes, as Barbados has been doing continually since Independence. Instead, skill eco-systems must be built on lifelong learning and mechanisms to boost understanding or productivity,” he shared.

The consultation reviewed the HRD Strategy 2011-2016 and looked at the development of a new three-year HRD Strategy that would guide interventions to create a cadre of globally competitive citizens. There was also a presentation on HRD strategies employed by Malta to increase productivity and grow its economy.

A Service of Worship and Praise for the life of Leroy Stephen King will take on Wednesday February 27th, 2019 at 2:00 p.m. at Holder’s Hill Pentecostal Church, Upper Durant’s Village, St. James, where relatives and friends are asked to meet. The cortege will then proceed to St. James cemetery for the interment.

The body will repose for viewing on Wednesday from 1.00 p.m. until the start of the service during which time floral tributes will be gratefully accepted.

Final arrangements are in the care and trust of Jo-Anne Jones Funeral Services And Pre-Arrangement Centre Ltd., “Clovelly”, Welches, Christ Church.

If I should go before the rest of you Break not a flower nor inscribe a stone, Nor when I'm gone speak in a Sunday voice But be the usual selves that I have known. Weep if you must, Parting is hell, But Life goes on, So sing as well.